Ten Mini-Languages: A Study of Topical Issues in Programming Languages

ABSTRACT

The proliferation of programming languages has raised many issues of language design, definition, and implementation. This paper presents a series of ten mini-languages, each of which exposes salient features found in existing programming languages. The value of the mini-languages lies in their brevity of description and the isolation of important linguistic features: in particular, the notions of assignment, transfer of control, functions, parameter passing, type checking, data structures, string manipulation, and input/output. The mini-languages may serve a variety of uses: notably, as a pedagogical tool for teaching programming languages, as a subject of study for the design of programming languages, and as a set of test cases for methods of language implementation or formal definition.

REFERENCES

• 1: Alonzo Church, The Calculi of Lambda Conversion. (AM-6) (Annals of Mathematics Studies), Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1985
• 2: Kenneth Cohen , J. H. Wegstein, AXLE2: an axiomatic language for string transformations, Communications of the ACM, v.8 n.11, p.657-661, Nov. 1965 [doi>10.1145/365660.365669]
• 3: CURRY, HASKELL B.; AND ROBERT FEYS. Combinatory logic, Vol. 1. North-Holland Publ. Co., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1958.
• 4: CARACCIOLO DI FORINO, A. "String processing languages and generalized Markov algorithms." In Symbol manipulation languages and techniques, D. G. Bobrow (Ed.), North-Holland Publ. Co., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1968, pp. 191-206.
• 5: HOARE, C. A. R. "Record handling." In Programming languages, F. Genuys (Ed.), Academic Press, New York, 1968.
• 6: JOHNSTON, JOHN B. "The contour model of block structured processes." In Proc. of a Symposium on Data Structures in Programming Languages, J. T. Tou and P. Wegner (Eds.), Univ. Florida, Gainesville, Fla., 1971, 55--82.
• 7: D. E. Knuth, A proposal for input-output conventions in ALGOL 60, Communications of the ACM, v.7 n.5, p.273-283, May 1964 [doi>10.1145/364099.364222]
• 8: P. J. Landin, Correspondence between ALGOL 60 and Church's Lambda-notation: part I, Communications of the ACM, v.8 n.2, p.89-101, Feb. 1965 [doi>10.1145/363744.363749]
• 9: P. J. Landin, The next 700 programming languages, Communications of the ACM, v.9 n.3, p.157-166, March 1966 [doi>10.1145/365230.365257]
• 10: MARKOV, ANDREI A. Theory of algorithms. (Russian) Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow, 1954. English translation by Israel Program for Scientific Translations.
• 11: MORRIS, JAMES H. "X-calculus models of programming languages." (PhD Dissertation) Project MAC Technical Report 57, MIT, Cambridge, Mass., 1968.
• 12: J. W. Backus , F. L. Bauer , J. Green , C. Katz , J. McCarthy , A. J. Perlis , H. Rutishauser , K. Samelson , B. Vauquois , J. H. Wegstein , A. van Wijngaarden , M. Woodger , P. Naur, Revised report on the algorithm language ALGOL 60, Communications of the ACM, v.6 n.1, p.1-17, Jan. 1963 [doi>10.1145/366193.366201]
• 13: QUINE, WILLARD V. Word and object. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1960.
• 14: SCOTT, DANA. "Outline for a mathematical theorv of computation." Technical Monograph PRG-2, Programming Research Group, Oxford Univ. Computing Lab., Oxford, England, 1970.
• 15: STANDISH, THOMAS A. "A data definition facility for programming languages." (PhD Dissertation) Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1967.
• 16: STRACHEY, CHRISTOPHER. "Fundamental concepts in programming languages." In Proc. of 1967 NATO Summer School, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1967.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software